NASCAR NOTES: Harvick Wins as Point Leaders Have Trouble in Kansas

Photo Credit: Ed Zurga/Getty Images

Glenn Campbell - "The Lugnut Cowboy"

KANSAS CITY, KS (WFXG) -

Well, as you know, the weather in Kansas can stir up some
powerful whirlwinds and Sunday's Hollywood Casino 400 fell victim to those
turbulent conditions. Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Gordon closed ground
on the Chase point leaders as the top three had trouble on the tricky mile and
a half Kansas Speedway.

Point leader, Matt Kenseth, never quite got up to speed and
Jimmie Johnson had engine trouble in the final laps to finish 11th and 6th
respectively which allowed Harvick and Gordon to close in on the Championship
point battle.

However, Kyle Busch took the hardest hit in the points
falling from third to fifth after two accidents sidelined him for a 34th place
finish.

Race winner Kevin Harvick blamed the track and new tires for
the tricky driving conditions. "It was an interesting
weekend to say the least," said Harvick when asked about all the trouble
that plagued the point leaders. "Obviously everybody was battling the
tires and the track, and I think it was like driving on a razor blade."

Harvick had his issues as
well but knew that as long as he could stay out front in clean air, he had the
car to beat.

"It was like driving
two different cars," continued the race winner. "Out front it
was not even close, and in traffic you were just another one of the cars and
had a lot of trouble, so that made the restarts really important.
Everybody would get really aggressive on the restarts and try to make up spots
because that was the place that you had to do it."

Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon
could attest to the aggressive restarts as the two of them had some issues down
the stretch to their second and third place finishes.

"There was a restart where he was on our outside through 1
and 2, and just didn't quite give us an inch and dumped so much air under the
rear of our car where I was on banana peels sliding up onto the exit of 2, and
he thought I was trying to pinch him," explained Busch of the incident.
"So I returned the favor by putting my nose close to his rear bumper and
took away that inch instead of giving an inch and got back by him."

Gordon didn't quite see it that
way but chalked it all up to hard racing.

"It was really just hard
racing," said Gordon of his view of the situation. "I was fine
with all of it up until he drove into my door on the back straightaway.
There was just no reason for that."

In the end it was Harvick that
rolled into victory lane to keep his championship hopes alive. Does he have
enough time to overtake the top two drivers? That will have to be played out
over the next six weeks.